Work Text:
The two superheroes were in front of the statue erected in Gabriel’s memory.
All of Paris viewed Gabriel Agreste as a hero; a man who helped Ladybug in defeating Monarch. That was part of his wish. To revive his wife and heal Nathalie, he sacrificed himself.
A person worth remembering. A villain no more.
As the setting sun painted the sky in oranges and pinks, visitors of the park slowly became less and less. Ladybug and Chat Noir stood close. Not too close, though. They broke the news to each other of dating someone else in their civilian lives. Both can admit it was bittersweet.
Ladybug frowned at the Gabriel statue. The man who left behind a legacy of a hero… leaving behind a memory of being a good father… being known as someone who assisted in Monarch’s fall.
Lies. Every single one.
Said truth was gnawing, the feeling ever-growing with each moment. The weight became more unbearable in Ladybug’s chest. She knew the truth while everyone else was oblivious. Including Adrien-
“Ladybug?” Chat Noir’s voice broke the pattern of rumination.
“Ah! Uh, yeah?” Ladybug blurted out, the words tumbling before she could stop herself.
“It looks like there is a lot on your mind,” He commented.
Was it that noticeable?
“… I do,” she confessed. “But it’s nothing serious. The last fight with Monarch has me thinking about a lot.”
“Like what?”
‘How Gabriel Agreste was Monarch the whole time,’ she wanted to say, yet a bite on her tongue prevented her from doing so. Her heart ached for Adrien. Her boyfriend had no idea all this time that his own father was the cause for all of the akumas. The one responsible for seeking out negative emotions in all of Paris-
“Ladybug,” repeated Chat Noir, a tiny bit of frustration in his tone.
She’s ruminating again.
“Sorry,” she lamented, averting her gaze away from the dirty lie of a statue. Ladybug focused her attention on Chat Noir instead. His cat-like green eyes helped her relax somewhat. The concern was evident as his eyebrows were etched together.
The heroine opened her mouth to speak once more. Zero sound at first.
“It’s just – it’s-” she stammered then took a deep breath to steady herself. “It’s just… so much. I don’t know where to start. And I- it’ll take forever for me to begin. My thoughts are so rattled.”
A soft smile graced Ladybug’s lips, yet it was forced. A fake smile acting like a shield of protection. A smile hiding her actual thoughts. Merely another layer of a mask in addition to the one obscuring her face.
“I need some time to think everything over,” Ladybug added.
Chat Noir’s expression didn’t falter even when he nodded. “I understand,” he replied. “When you’re ready to tell me, I’ll be here to listen.”
There was a pause as Ladybug stiffened. There was no ‘my lady’ from him.
Why does she miss the ‘my lady’…?
Humming a bit, Ladybug reached for her yo-yo. “See you around, Chat,” she said. She threw out her yo-yo and offered a gentler smile before swinging away.
Chat Noir remained there, forlornly, for a couple more minutes before traveling away with his baton.
Needing to hop across some rooftops, Marinette had to make it look as though she lived somewhere else before heading home. She entered through the hatch on her balcony; all this time, her parents would assume she was in her room.
“Spots off.”
Marinette kept her eyelids shut after the transformation fell. Standing up straight in her room, she took some deep breaths to steady her nerves. Tikki was staring, the silent sadness hanging in the air.
Opening her exhausted eyes, they danced around the room until they landed on a tall mirror. No surprise it was Marinette’s reflection. She changed back to civilian clothes and her hair returned to a bun. The girl walked towards the mirror. Hairstyles were special to her because associated memories cropped up from them. The bun was a love and a hate.
The bullying from Chloe over the years were always the initial ones to pop up. Ever since Kindergarten, Chloe chose Marinette as her target. Last year was particularly bad: t he bugs in her locker, the mop bucket in the bathroom, the green paint on her seat. And the spiders at the pool.
She wiped away the tears blurring her vision. Yet that soon proved fruitless.
“Marinette?” Tikki questioned.
No answer. Sighing, the kwami floated to the desk, sitting quietly while looking at her holder.
Marinette let the tears coat her cheeks, acknowledging the pain. The trauma was too real. Deep breaths caused her mind to think about moments from this year instead. Such as meeting Alya. And when her heart attached to Adrien, his kindness reaching out in the rain after she assumed he was another Chloe.
Raising a hand, Marinette undid the bun, taking out the red hair tie. Lovely dark blue locks cascaded down tense shoulders.
The loose hair. Memories wandered to the ball pit with Kagami and Adrien. The three stressed high-schoolers having a brief respite in life to be kids. Adrien’s compliment of her hair hanging down had her blushing; she smiled at the memory as she dried her cheeks.
Maybe having her hair loose more often wouldn’t be a bad course of action.
However she had a separate idea. Checking the nearest drawer, Marinette searched for another red hair tie and a comb, then trotted back to the mirror. After a quick untangle she bunched up half of the dark blue strands and applied the tie, followed by the second tie applied to the other half.
Pigtails. She now donned the same pigtails as Ladybug. It was weird. Almost too foreign of a concept to see them in absence of the spotted mask. Marinette turned her head from side to side, the pigtails bouncing along with the movement.
Tikki flew over while studying the girl. “What are you doing?” The sprite-like creature asked.
Marinette still didn’t say anything. Piled onto the swarming thoughts of Monarch, she had thoughts of an old friend. A friend from last year, a fall out of touch only to cross paths recently. The mental connecting of dots finally happened. She can’t believe it took this long to reach this conclusion, why her hairstyle as Ladybug felt so familiar yet new.
“Tikki,” Marinette croaked out. She cleared her throat then tried again. “Tikki, do you think-”
The floor hatch flew open and Tikki went into hiding. “Sweetie, I have something to – oh!” Sabine began to speak only to stop mid-sentence upon seeing her daughter.
“You have your hair in pigtails,” Sabine continued. “It’s a good look on you. In fact, it reminds me of someone.”
Marinette’s face was a mix of joy and apprehension.
Was this a mistake? Has she accidentally revealed herself?
“R-Really?” Marinette fumbled on her words as she turned to face her mother. “Who do they remind you of, mom?”
Sabine grinned. “Socqueline, dear,” came her answer. “You look quite a bit like her.”
Socqueline. Of course.
Marinette gazed at the ground, embarrassed. “Thanks,” she said.
“You’re welcome, sweetie. Anyway, I wanted to ask if you’d like to help out with some cookies.”
“Sure. Just need to do something else before that.”
“Alright.”
Sabine walked down the ladder and closed the hatch shut.
Marinette resumed looking at the mirror as Tikki floated back over to her. Sighing, the girl made another attempt to ask. “Tikki, do you think that I was subconsciously thinking about Socqueline the first time I transformed?”
“Most likely,” Tikki responded. “Looks like your mind wanted to honor her in a way. She was a hero to you last year, right?”
Hero. Socqueline… a hero.
Nodding, Marinette smiled at the ground. “Yeah. A hero,” she added. With more gazes at her reflection, her fingers ran through the pigtails.
As much as Marinette would like to use this hairstyle more often, it’d be too risky. She may not be the only person with blue-hair pigtails, but the style – from the parting of the bangs to the length of the hair itself – is too suspiciously similar to Ladybug. Gripping both ties at once, she pulled them out, letting her hair fall loose once more.
Back to the bun she went.